This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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How Time’s Bannon Cover Shows Us A Stark Vision Of Evil
In December, Time Magazine named Donald Trump the Person of the Year. On their cover they placed that incredible, deeply nuanced, subversive picture. Lurking behind Trump on that photo was an ominous shadow, that, as many viewers pointed out, did not correspond to the lighting, and could only have been the product of Photoshop. It was…
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Meet the Author Calling for a General Strike To Resist Trump
On Monday, January 30, The Guardian published a provocatively-titled opinion piece by author Francine Prose: “Forget protest. Trump’s actions warrant a general national strike.” In the column, Prose pondered the successes won by airport-based protests of President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order on immigrants and refugees, which prevents all Syrian citizens from entering the…
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Betsy DeVos Allegedly Plagiarized This Education Organization. Here’s Their Response.
Tuesday, January 31 brought an unexpected development in the already fraught battle over the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary. As The Washington Post reported, written responses DeVos delivered to Senator Patty Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension, appeared to plagiarize multiple sources,…
The Latest
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How Hannah Arendt Is Being Used and Misused in the Age of Trump
Hannah Arendt, who wrote extensively about authoritarianism, the nature of evil, and power, is having a bit of a moment. Currently circulating the internet (my twitter feed, at least) are two interesting articles regarding the Jewish philosopher’s legacy. First, we have Zoe Williams’ piece for The Guardian, “Totalitarianism in the age of Trump: Lessons from…
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Why The National Endowment for the Arts Is So Vital To America
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering eliminating The National Endowment for the Arts, according to a widely cited but unconfirmed report on plans for sweeping Federal budget cuts that was published in The Hill. The idea of removing the NEA has been sparking outrage in America’s artistic and literary community. “The estimated security cost for…
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WATCH: How Charlie Chaplin Captured the Immigrant Experience 100 Years Ago
Hopeful individuals and families cross an ocean, only to arrive in a strange country where, still culturally and financially at sea, they scrape by dint of their wiles and compassion for one another. Yes, Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 short film “The Immigrant” presents a romanticized caricature of the immigrant experience. Still, in a time when the…
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Why Nazi Propaganda Is Not As Relevant As You Might Think
One of the first things viewers see at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda,” which recently opened at the U.N., is a quote from 1924 by Adolf Hitler: “Propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.” And, as the exhibition will show,…
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These Are America’s Most Endangered Jewish Communities
There are 51 names on the list of the dead and the dying. They range in condition from having been diagnosed with a fatal disease, to being in the throes of death, to having already passed from this world, nothing left but a memory. They are in Niagara Falls, New York, and Lake Charles, Louisiana,…
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Why Israel’s Bestseller List Is a Threat to Hebrew Literature
Books in translation increasingly dominate Israel’s best-seller list, and some see a serious threat to Hebrew-language writers in the trend. This week’s bestseller list, published in Haaretz, includes a whopping nine titles in translation out of ten top slots in fiction sold at independent bookstores. It will take only one additional foreign bestseller to reduce…
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Richard Spencer’s Awful Response to Quebec Murders
As is well known by now, Canadian police allege that on Sunday Alexandre Bissonnette, a French Canadian White Nationalist who is reportedly a fan of Marine LePen walked into a mosque at prayer in Quebec City and opened fire, killing at least six people and wounding many more. Regis Labeaume, the mayor of peaceful Quebec…
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The Guide To The Alt Right’s Memes That You Wish You Didn’t Need
Last week, Vice published a guide to help you navigate the worst that America has to offer: alt-right/Nazi/fascist/racist memes. As Justin Caffier of Vice points out, “Internet memes are, by and large, the currency in which these young nationalists trade, eschewing the stuffy, articulated treatises of ‘Mein Kampf’ in favor of more virality-friendly catchphrases and…
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Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
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Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
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Opinion I discovered anti-Zionism at the University of Michigan. I’m glad it lives on there
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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